Clarence Thomas

The Supreme Court dealt a blow Monday to the Obama administration’s environmental plans, deciding that efforts to sharply limit hazardous power plant emissions must also consider their costs. In a 5-4 decision, the justices said the Environmental Protection Agency needs to weigh the economic impact of proposed regulations — estimated at $9.6 billion annually — on power companies and their customers. The decision marks a victory for the coal and power industries as well as a coalition of Republican-led states that had sued to block the rules. The National Association of Manufacturers welcomed the decision, saying aggressive regulations place American companies at a...

Related "Clarence Thomas" Articles

– Same-sex couples have a constitutionally-protected right to marry, the Supreme Court said in a 5-4 ruling released Friday morning.
In a ruling covering four cases, a majority of the justices declared that states must issue licenses for same-sex...

Thomas Tucker and Gary Wentworth of Allentown were getting ready to run last-minute errands for their wedding on Saturday when they got a gift like no other.
In a historic cumulation of decades of litigation, the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday ruled 5-4...

When was the last time Justice Clarence Thomas provided the decisive fifth vote to the U.S. Supreme Court's four liberals — to decide against free speech? I can't think of one, but that's what happened Thursday in the court's decision in Walker v. Sons of...

In a decision that creates a broader line between venting frustration online and using social media to make criminal threats, the U.S. Supreme Court dealt a victory to a Lehigh Valley man who spent nearly four years in federal prison for comments he...

WASHINGTON — Warehouse workers who fill shipments for online retailers like Amazon do not have to be paid for time they spend waiting in security screenings, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.
In a unanimous ruling, the justices overturned a...

Back in the 1940s, when the U.S. Supreme Court last spent a lot of time struggling with the question of what parts of a worker's day were included in the job for the purposes of getting an hourly wage, the cases tended to come out 5-4. Then, liberals...

The piece hung over the sofa in Arlen Specter's Capitol office: Framed replicas of the failed U.S. Senate resolution to impeach President Bill Clinton, personally signed by all 100 senator/jurors, the House members who prosecuted the case, and members...

HARRISBURG — The Fourth of July fireworks had barely gone out when television airwaves crackled to life with sounds and sights of fall."We've got a great vision for Pennsylvania," Republican Gov. Tom Corbett said as viewers saw farms, skylines...

Michael B. Hultquist graduated from Southern Lehigh High School in 1999, went to the University of Delaware on an Army ROTC scholarship and got his officer's commission in the aviation branch. He became a paratrooper and helicopter pilot in the 82nd...

The Supreme Court cleared the way Monday for Oklahoma to continue using a lethal drug cocktail for executions, but, in a surprising dissent, two liberal justices opened the door to what could become a historic challenge to the death penalty itself.
By...

The Supreme Court acted Monday to keep Texas' 19 abortion clinics open, amid a legal fight that threatens to close more than half of them.
The justices voted 5-4 to grant an emergency appeal from the clinics after a federal appeals court...

The Supreme Court has blocked Obama administration rules designed to sharply limit the hazardous air pollutants that spew from the nation's power plants.
The justices by a 5-4 vote agreed with the coal industry and Republican-led states that...

Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, in an unusual separate opinion in a case, wrote that it may be time for judges to limit the use of long-term solitary confinement in prisons.
His comments accompanying a decision issued Thursday marked a rare...

The Supreme Court will decide a seemingly simple question this month in the latest challenge to the Affordable Care Act: Does the law limit subsidies for low- and moderate-income consumers to insurance purchased through an exchange “established by the...

The Supreme Court strengthened civil rights protections Monday for employees and job applicants who need special treatment in the workplace because of their religious beliefs.
The justices sided with a Muslim woman who did not get hired after she...

For 50 years the “one person, one vote” principle has been used to divvy up political power by counting all people in states and putting them into electoral districts of roughly equal size.
But the mathematics of power may be about to change in a way...

The Supreme Court delivered a rare victory for minority voting rights Wednesday, finding that a 2012 Alabama redistricting plan appeared to violate federal law by shifting black voters into districts they already dominated to dilute their influence...

The Supreme Court on Monday gave its strongest signal yet that the legal fight for nationwide gay marriage has been won even before the issue is argued in April.
The justices, with only two dissenting votes, turned down Alabama’s plea to delay same-sex...

Justice Clarence Thomas criticized his Supreme Court colleagues Monday for refusing to block same-sex marriage in Alabama until the court resolves the issue nationwide in a few months.
Thomas said in a dissenting opinion that the court's Alabama order...